Bag-fastener.



HIYERING & A. FULLER.

BAG msw rmm. APPLIOATION FILED 0 01. 20, 19 06 Patented Dec. 29

.illllw.

IIIIHIHIIIE ll llni FEES] WITNESSES.

0. HIERIN.G.,& A, FULLER.

BAG I'ASTENEB. APPLICATION FILED 001. 20, 1906.

Patented ,Dee.- 29, 1908.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ATTORNEYS.

G. HIERIN G 6; A. FULLER.

BAG FASTENER. APPLIOATIDN FILED OUT. 20, 1906.

WITNESSES: ,4. a. m

4 Armnrmm n1: NORRIS PETERS :0 WQSHVNGION, n. c.

unrrnn STATES-PATENT ornron. l

CHRISTIAN HIERING AND ALBERT FULLER, OF NEWARK,NEWZJERSEY, ASSIGNORS TOJ. E.

' MERG OTT COMPANY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

BAG-FASTENER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 29, 1908.

App1icati on filed October 20, 1906. Serial No. 339,747.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHRISTIAN HIERiNG.

and ALBERT FULLER, citizens of the United States, residing in the cityof Newark, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Bag-Fasteners; and we do herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of. thesame, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertainsto make, construct, and use the same.

The object of our invention is to construct a fastener for use uponbags, pocket-books and other similar devices, the same comprisingpreferably, a chambered base having a portion of its front wall recessedor cut-out and provided with acatch member having one limb lying in saidrecessed or cut-out portion of the base and flush with its front wall,the other limb extendinginto said base and a spring designed to bearupon said catch member tohold it in normal position, thereby producing afastener which presents a neat appearance with no sharp externalprojecting members liable to become inop-' erative through shipment andcareless mani ulation.

carrying out our invention, we make use of the structures illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which i Figure 1 is a front elevation ofone form of fastener in which we have embodied our invention. Fig. 2 isa top plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view showing theparts assembled. Fig; 4 is a central vertical section. Fig. 5 is a planview, and Fig. 6 is a side elevationof the actuating spring. Fig. 7 is afront elevation of a modifled form of our invention. Fig. 8 is a topplan view of the same. Fig. 9 is a bottom plan view. Fig. 10 is acentral-vertical section. Fig. 11 is a vertical section taken on line00-50 of Fig. 7. Fig. 12 is a plan view of the actuating spring. Fig. 13is a side view of the actuating spring used in said modification. Fig.14. is a front elevation of another modified form of our invention.-Fig. 15 is a central vertical section. Fig. 16 is a front elevation ofthe recessed chambered base and chambered top piece with the catchmember removed. Fig. 17 is a modified bottom plan view. Fig. 18 is acentral vertical section of Fig. 16, and Fig. 19 is a modified bottomplan view. s Similar letters of reference refer to like parts throughoutthe specification and draw- 1ngs..

Inthe drawings, we have shown our invention as applied to the hingedmembers a and b of a bag frame. We rovide a chambered base plate 0secured y means of the rivets c to one of the bag frame members as a.Rigidly secured to the top of this chambered base piece 0 in anyconvenient manner, is the chambered member (1, substantially of theconfiguration illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. The front walls of boththe base piece a and the top piece at are cut away as shown in Figs. 1,3 and 4, for the reception of the L-sha ed catch member e, having therectangu ar limbs or flanges e and e, the limb 42* being made to fltinto said cut-away ortions as illustrated in Fig. 1, and lie ush withthe front face of the base 0 and member (1, the upper margin, however ofthe catch member 6 is flanged as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 at e forthe purpose of extending into the chambered portion of the top piece (1against which it bears to prevent its withdrawal when the parts areassembled. The

lower or flanged portion or limb e of said catch member 0 extends intothe chamber of the base piece 0 and is made considerably longer than thewidth of the o ening in the front of the piece 0, so that t e elongatedflange or limb e is received between and retained in position by meansof the side walls of the chambered base piece 0, where it lies normallyparallel with the top wall a. .In this manner, it will be noted thatthere is left a rectangular space between the flange e and the-top wall0 of the base 0. When the parts are thus assembled, we insert betweenthe wall 0 spring f into said rectangular space with the inwardlydirected tongues f of said s ring bearing upon the flange or limb e whie the central cambered portion of said spring bears u on the upper wall0 of the base a. It will be noted that the s ring tongues f bear uponthe forwardportlon of the flange or limb e and resist any pressure whichmay be brought to bear upon the front face of the catch member e Ifdesired, the pressed out projection a may be provided upon the catchmember 6 to. form a convenient finger hold. When the parts are thusassembled, the base pieces is riveted to one of the bag frame members asa, and it will be noted that under such circumstances, all of the partsand the flange or limb e the are held in position without liability tobecome accidentally separated. When so assembled, the rear edge of theflange e extends to the rear side of the base a and any pressure uponthe pressed out or finger pieee'e will tend to oscillate the catchmember e about said rear edge, such tendency being resisted by thespring tongues f, while the forward extended ends bear upon thefrontwall of the base 0 and form stops to prevent the removal of the catchmember a.

In the forward portion of the flange 0, we have provided theindentations g to receive corresponding projections upon the bag framemember'b, so that when the bag frame membersare closed as illustrated inthe several figures, such projections will be received intotherindentations g and firmly secure the bag frame members in lockedposition. If pressure is now brought to bear upon the finger piece esaid. finger piece will be depressed into the chambered top piece (Z,swingingabout the rear edge of the flange e as a fulcrum, therebyelevating the forward portion of said flange c and causing theindentations g to clear the projections Z1, upon the bag frame memberZ). This particular form of lock, it will be noted ismade up of but fourpieces,.namely, thechambered base c, the top piece cZ, the catch member6 and the spring In the modification illustrated in Figs 7 to 13vinclusive, we make use ofbut three separate parts, namely, the chamberedbase piece e, the spring Z and the combined top piece and catch member76. In general appearance, the two modifications. are substantially thesame. Instead, however, of cutting'away the front portion of thechambered-top piece it, we leave the same integral and extend its frontwall downwardly and provide it with the inturned flangem which extendsinto the cut-away portion of the base i as shown" in Fig. 10, saidinturned flange being provided with extensions m to prevent separationofthe parts when assembled, and form convenient stops which will limitthe tilting'movement of the combined-top piece andcatch member 7c. Undersome circumstances,however, we may omit these extensions m entirely soas te'leave the flange mof the same length as the opening-in the basepieced. With the top piece 7c inpositionupon-the base i,it willbe notedthat a rectangular space-isleft between the flange m and. the top wall iof the base-i, and into this space we insert the springZ withitscarnbered centrallportion bearing of the top wall i and the springtongues Z bearing upon the forward portion of: the m. In this manner,any tendency to tilt backward the toppiece by'pressure upon itsforwardside, will be resisted by the inwardly directed spring'tongues Z bearingupon the inturned flange m.

In order to prevent accidental displacement of the top piece 7c, in casewe do not use the extensions m upon the flange m, we may make use of theprojections 7c upon the extreme end walls of the top piece it, suchprojections extending through apertures o in the top wall of the base i.We may, however, use both the extensions m and the projections it, butwe do not desire to limit ourselves to the use of both of such parts inconjunction, as either method will secure the top piece is againstaccidental displacement. \"J'here we use the extensions Zr upon theendsof the top piece 7:, we provide the forward edge of the same with anotch which upon tilting back the top piece i'. around theupper rearedge of the base as a fulcrum is resisted by the pressure of the springtongues Z. As shown in Figs. 10 and 11, said notch Zr will come incontact with the forward end of the aperture 0 and thus limit the extentto which the top piece Z? can bedepressed rearwardly as indicated by thearrow in Fig; 1 0. We provide the forward portion of the flange m withthe indentations p to receive corresponding projections upon the bagframe member I) as heretofore described in connection with themodification illustrated in Fig. 3.

The springs illustrated in Figs. and 13 are formedfrom a single flatpiece of metal, centrally cambered as illustrated and havingthe springtongues f and Z formed by cutting away from points remote from the endsof the piece'of metal towards the ends as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 12,with such tongues upwardly bent in the opposite directions from thecamber of the metal. Under ordinary circumstances and in the locksshown, the metal between the tongues f as illustrated in F 5 may be cutaway. There are, however, certain conditions where pressure brought tobear upon the spring tongues Z of the structure illustrated in Figs. 12and 13, might tend to tilt the spring because of the fact that thebearing pointsof such tongues lie close to the edge of the spring; Inorder to overcome this tilting tendency, where exists, we leave acentral projection Z as shownin Fig.12, so that the actual bearingpoints of the spring shall he in substantial alinement. In this manner,all tendency to tilt under pressure brought to bear upon the tongues Zand the central cambered portion Z will be completely overcome;

In the modification illustrated in Figs. 14 to 19, inclusive, we makeuse ofthe ro cessed chamberedbase piece it, the recessed chambered toppiece (1 and the catch memher t. In general appearance, thevariousmodifications are substantially the same.

Instead, however,.ofcutting away the front portion of the chambered baseit and chambered top piece q, we leave the metalintegral and press theirfront walls rearward as at s, in order to give additional strength tothe parts. It will thus be seen that instead of cutting the metal awayas in Figs. 1, 3, 4:, 7, 9 and 10, we form a recess in illustrated inFigs. 14 to 19, inclusive, by simply pressing the metal from the frontwall rearwardly, thereby providing a recess for the reception of thecatch member 13, said recess having a shape which conforms to the shapeof the catch member t, which it is to receive and of such a de th thatwhen such catch member is locate within said recess, the front wall ofsaid catch member will lie flush or in the same lane with the frontwalls of the chambers base n and top piece q, and still leave sufficientspace between the rear wall of the catch member if and the front walls 8of the recessed parts'to permit said catch member to freely operate whendepressed. In Figs. 16 and 17, we have entirely dispensed with thesprings Z and f, by forming suitable spring tongues a integral with thechambered base 1. s ring tongues a are forced out of the metal ing theup er side of'the chambered base a and bent ownwardly a distancesufficiently to engage with the upper forward surface of theright-angled flange r of the catch memlger t, which extends into thechambered ase a.

In the modification illustrated Fig. 19,.

we employ a combined catch member an spring. In this case the nturnedflange 1 of the catch member t is provided with suitable extensions orspring tongues 1", the outer ends of which are designed to bear againstthe upper and inner surface of the chambered base 'n. It will thus beseen that we have provided a fastener in which we have reduced theactual number of parts to three or four, and that when assembled, and inposition upon a bag frame or other device,

the fastener presents a neat and tasty appearance with no sharp externalprojections an with the operating parts so protected as to leavepractically no liability for displacement without breakage. The parts alare of such a shape as to lend themselves readily to manufacture by theuse of suitable unches and dies from ordinary sheet metal.

We claim:

1. In' a bag fastener, the combination of a chambered base having an oening in its front wall, a catch member ying in said opening flush withsaid front wall and having a flange extending within said base andfulcrumed against the rear wall thereof, and a spring located betweensaid flange an t e top wall of said base.

2. In a bag fastener, chambered base, and a chambered top piece securedto said base,

the front walls cut-away portion, a catch the structures.

the combination of a I said cut-away portion and having a right angledflange extending into said chambered base and a spring bearing upon saidflange to hold saidcatch member in position.

3. In a bag fastener, the combination of a chambered base, an L-shapedcatch member having one of its limbs located within said base andfulcrumed against the rear wall thereof and its other limb lying in acutaway portion of and flush with the front wall of said base and aspring located within said base and bearing upon the upper wall thereofand upon said catch member to retain the same in normal position.

4. In a bag fastener, the combination of a chambered base, a ch rigidlysecured to said base, said base an top piece each having ortions oftheir front wall cut-away, an L-s raped catch member having one of itslimbs lying in said cut-away ortions flush with the front walls of saidase and to piece respectively and its other limb exten 'ng into saidbase and a spring within said base bearing upon said last named limb.

5. In a bag fastener, the combination of a base having a chamber in itsunderside, and having a portion of its front and to walls cut-away, anL-shaped catch member aving one limb thereof extending into said chamberand its other limb lying in said cut-away portion, flush with said frontwall and a spring lying between and bearing upon the top wall of saidbase and the first named limb of said catch member.

6. A spring for bag fasteners consisting of a fiat piece of metalcentrally cambered and having integral inturned spring tongues.

7. A spring of the class described, consisting of a flat piece of metalcentrally cambered and spring tongues cut-away from the body of saidpiece of metal.

8. A spring of the class described, consisting of a fiat piece of metalcentrally cambered and spring tongues formed by cutting curve diagonalslits in one edge from points adjacent the center towards the ends ofsaid flat piece of metal.

9. A fastener for bag frame and the like, comprising a chambered basehaving a portion of its front and top walls cut out, an L-shaped catchmember having one limb lying in said cut-out portion of the base andflush with its front wall, the other limb extending into said base and aspring bearing upon said catch member to hold it in normal osition.

This specification signed and witnessed h this 13th day of October 1906.

CHRISTIAN HIERING. ALBERT FULLER I Witnesses:

WM. E. HOWELL, FREDK. G. Frscnnn.

ambered top piece

